June 2024 – Passion for Photos

Zebra Dragon Fly

I was driving through Yosemite National Park on Tioga Road last week and saw this Dragon Fly on one of the lakes.

With research I found that this is a Zebra Dragon Fly, never seen one before.

Cruising by Alcatraz, former Federal Penitentiary

From 1939 until 1963, Alcatraz housed the most fearsome prisoners in the US. By inmates, often called “Hellcatraz” for its brutal living conditions. An unknown writer described Alcatraz as “the great garbage can of the San Francisco Bay, into which every federal prison dumped its most rotten apples.” Here, in this picture you see the Warden’s House and the Lighthouse. A house of luxury, the warden’s house often held lavish cocktail parties. In 1970, the island was occupied by Native Americans, and the Warden’s House burned down, before Red Power Activists were forcefully removed from the island. The protest group chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IAT). IAT claimed that, under the treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota, all retired, abandoned, or out of use federal land was to be returned to the indigenous peoples.

The Flowers of Big Sur

Sharing

We were sitting at a historic ice-cream parlor in Columbia, CA, an old mining town located in the foothills of Central California. Mother and son were sharing their ice-cream. Enjoy!

Marktbummel

Diese vier älteren Damen nutzten das diesjährige Domfest in Königslutter zu einer ausgiebigen Prüfung der an zahlreichen Marktständen angebotenen Waren. Und so etwas macht natürlich am meisten Spaß, wenn man zusammen auf die “Jagd” nach einem guten Angebot geht.

These four elderly ladies took advantage of this year’s cathedral festival in Königslutter to take a close look at the goods on offer at the numerous market stalls. And of course, this kind of thing is most fun when you go “hunting” for a good offer together.

High Country Meadow

The Sierra Vista Scenic Highway in California includes Beasore Road, which skirts several lovely meadows filled with wildflowers.

Kulturbanausen!

Seit Jahrhunderten bewacht dieser steinerne Löwe zusammen mit einem Gegenüber das nördliche Seitenportal des romanischen Kaiserdoms in Königslutter. Und dann das: Beim Domfest am letzten Sonntag muss er als Becherhalter fungieren.

For centuries, this stone lion has been guarding the northern side portal of the Romanesque imperial cathedral in Königslutter together with a counterpart. And then this: at the cathedral festival last Sunday, it has to act as a cup holder.

Dying forests

The area in southern Germany where I come from used to be covered by vast pine forests. Long periods of drought in summer, lack of below zero temperatures in winter and the general increase of temperatures has weakened the trees. The sick trees are finished off by the bark beetle, which better survives in the warm winters and breeds more often in a year due to the long warm spells. It will only be a matter of a handfull of years until the pine forests are gone. With the change in forest comes a complete change in living conditions for the fauna and flora existing under the cover of the trees.